--- title: Magic and Witchcraft., part 7 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Magic and Witchcraft., part 7, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: The Soldier read and read. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collecti…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/) / Magic and Witchcraft., part 7 # Magic and Witchcraft., part 7 Magic and Witchcraft., part 7 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 159 sentences and 2646 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself; 1 of them are in the tales treebank and were checked by a teacher model. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/1/) — The Soldier read and read. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/2/) — Midnight came, the wind blew, the coffin began to rock, the cover flew afar off. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/3/) — The Soldier jumped up on the stove-pipe, covered himself with the frying-pan, protected himself with a sign of the cross, and awaited what was going to happen. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/4/) — Out jumped the witch and began rushing about. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/5/) — Round her came swarming countless devils, the izba was full of them! - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/6/) — They rushed about in search of the Soldier; they looked into the stove-- - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/7/) — "Here's the place," they cried, "where he was last night." - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/8/) — "There's the place, but he's not there." - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/9/) — This way and that they rush,--cannot see him anywhere. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/10/) — Presently there stepped across the threshold a very old devil. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/11/) — "What are you looking for?" - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/12/) — "The Soldier. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/13/) — He was reading here a moment ago, and now he's disappeared." - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/14/) — "Ah! no eyes! - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/15/) — And who's that sitting on the stove-pipe there?" - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/16/) — The Soldier's heart thumped like anything; he all but tumbled down on the ground! - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/17/) — "There he is, sure enough!" cried the devils, "but how are we to settle him. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/18/) — Surely it's impossible to reach him there?" - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/19/) — "Impossible, forsooth! - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/20/) — Run and lay your hands on a candle-end which has been lighted without a blessing having been uttered over it." - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/21/) — In an instant the devils brought the candle-end, piled up a lot of wood right under the stove-pipe, and set it alight. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/22/) — The flame leapt high into the air, the Soldier began to roast: first one foot, then the other, he drew up under him. — checked by a teacher - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/23/) — "Now," thinks he, "my death has come!" - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/24/) — All of a sudden, luckily for him, the cocks began to crow, the devils vanished, the witch fell flat on the floor. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/25/) — The soldier jumped down from the stove-pipe, and began putting out the fire. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/26/) — When he had put it out he set every thing to rights, placed the merchant's daughter in her coffin, covered it up with the lid, and betook himself to reading the psalter. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/27/) — At daybreak came the merchant, and listened at the door to find out whether the Soldier was alive or not. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/28/) — When he heard his voice he opened the door and said-- - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/29/) — "Hail, Soldier!" - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/30/) — "I wish you good health, master merchant." - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/31/) — "Have you passed the night comfortably?" - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/32/) — "Glory be to God, I've seen nothing bad." - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/33/) — The merchant gave him a hundred and fifty roubles, and said-- - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/34/) — "You've done a deal of work, Soldier! do a little more. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/35/) — Come here to-night and carry my daughter to the graveyard." - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/36/) — "Good, I'll come." - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/37/) — "Well, friend, what has God given?" - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/38/) — "Glory be to God, grandfather, I've got off safe! - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/39/) — The merchant has asked me to be at his house to-night, to carry his daughter to the graveyard. - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/40/) — Should I go or not?" - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/41/) — "If you go, you won't be alive, and if you don't go, you won't be alive. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/42/) — But you must go; it will be better so." - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/43/) — "But what must I do? tell me." - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/44/) — "Well this. - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/45/) — When you get to the merchant's, everything will be ready there. - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/46/) — At ten o'clock the relations of the deceased will begin taking leave of her; and afterwards they will fasten three iron hoops round the coffin, and place it on the funeral car; and at eleven o'clock they will tell you to take it to the graveyard. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/47/) — Do you drive off with the coffin, but keep a sharp look-out. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/48/) — One of the hoops will snap. - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/49/) — Never fear, keep your seat bravely; a second will snap, keep your seat all the same; but when the third hoop snaps, instantly jump on to the horse's back and through the \_duga\_ (the wooden arch above its neck), and run away backwards. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/50/) — Do that, and no harm will come to you." - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/51/) — The Soldier lay down to sleep, slept till the evening, and then went to the merchant's. - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/52/) — At ten o'clock the relations began taking leave of the deceased; then they set to work to fasten iron hoops round the coffin. - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/53/) — They fastened the hoops, set the coffin on the funeral car, and cried-- - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/54/) — "Now then, Soldier! drive off, and God speed you!" - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/55/) — The Soldier got into the car and set off: at first he drove slowly, but as soon as he was out of sight he let the horse go full split. - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/56/) — Away he galloped, but all the while he kept an eye on the coffin. - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/57/) — Snap went one hoop--and then another. - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/58/) — The witch began gnashing her teeth. - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/59/) — "Stop!" she cried, "you sha'n't escape! - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/60/) — I shall eat you up in another moment." - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/61/) — "No, dovey! - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/62/) — Soldiers are crown property; no one is allowed to eat them." - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/63/) — Here the last hoop snapped: on to the horse jumped the Soldier, and through the \_duga\_, and then set off running backwards. - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/64/) — The witch leapt out of the coffin and tore away in pursuit. - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/65/) — Lighting on the Soldier's footsteps she followed them back to the horse, ran right round it, saw the soldier wasn't there, and set off again in pursuit of him. - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/66/) — She ran and ran, lighted again on his footsteps, and again came back to the horse. - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/67/) — Utterly at her wit's end, she did the same thing some ten times over. - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/68/) — Suddenly the cocks began crowing. - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/69/) — There lay the witch stretched out flat on the road! - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/70/) — The Soldier picked her up, put her in the coffin, slammed the lid down, and drove her to the graveyard. - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/71/) — When he got there he lowered the coffin into the grave, shovelled the earth on top of it, and returned to the merchant's house. - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/72/) — "I've done it all," says he; "catch hold of your horse." - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/73/) — When the merchant saw the Soldier he stared at him with wide-open eyes. - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/74/) — "Well, Soldier!" said he, "I know a good deal! and as to my daughter, we needn't speak of her. - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/75/) — She was awfully sharp, she was! - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/76/) — But, really, you know more than we do!" - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/77/) — "Come now, master merchant! pay me for my work." - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/78/) — So the merchant handed him over two hundred roubles. - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/79/) — The soldier took them, thanked him, and then went home, and gave his family a feast. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/80/) — \[The next chapter will contain a number of vampire stories which, in some respects, resemble these tales of homicidal corpses. - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/81/) — But most of them belong, I think, to a separate group, due to a different myth or superstition from that which has given rise to such tales as those quoted above. - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/82/) — The vampire is actuated by a thirst which can be quenched only by blood, and which impels it to go forth from the grave and destroy. - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/83/) — But the enchanted corpses which rise at midnight, and attempt to rend their watchers, appear to owe their ferocity to demoniacal possession. - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/84/) — After the death of a witch her body is liable, says popular tradition, to be tenanted by a devil (as may be seen from No. iii.), and to corpses thus possessed have been attributed by the storytellers the terrible deeds which Indian tales relate of Rakshasas and other evil spirits. - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/85/) — Thus in the story of Nischayadatta, in the seventh book of the "Kathasaritsagara," the hero and the four pilgrims, his companions, have to pass a night in a deserted temple of Siva. - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/86/) — It is haunted by a \_Yakshini\_, a female demon, who turns men by spells into brutes, and then eats them; so they sit watching and praying beside a fire round which they have traced a circle of ashes. - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/87/) — At midnight the demon-enchantress arrives, dancing and "blowing on a flute made of a dead man's bone." - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/88/) — Fixing her eyes on one of the pilgrims, she mutters a spell, accompanied by a wild dance. - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/89/) — Out of the head of the doomed man grows a horn; he loses all command over himself, leaps up, and dances into the flames. - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/90/) — The \_Yakshini\_ seizes his half-burnt corpse and devours it. - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/91/) — Then she treats the second and the third pilgrim in the same way. - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/92/) — But just as she is turning to the fourth, she lays her flute on the ground. - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/93/) — In an instant the hero seizes it, and begins to blow it and to dance wildly around the \_Yakshini\_, fixing his eyes upon her and applying to her the words of her own spell. - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/94/) — Deprived by it of all power, she submits, and from that time forward renders the hero good service. - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/95/) — \[368\]\] - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/96/) — In one of the skazkas a malignant witch is destroyed by a benignant female power. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/97/) — It had been predicted that a certain baby princess would begin flying about the world as soon as she was fifteen. - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/98/) — So her parents shut her up in a building in which she never saw the light of day, nor the face of a man. - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/99/) — For it was illuminated by artificial means, and none but women had access to it. - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/100/) — But one day, when her nurses and \_Mamzeli\_ had gone to a feast at the palace, she found a door unlocked, and made her way into the sunlight. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/48/page/2/) - ← previous: [Magic and Witchcraft., part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/47/) - next →: [Magic and Witchcraft., part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/49/) - ↑ back to [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/)